The Big East’s basketball-first schools now have the ability to dissolve the league and form a new basketball-centric conference but are not inclined to follow that course so long as no additional defections occur, a source in the league told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.

“If the bleeding stopped here, the seven schools would be happy,” a source from a Big East basketball-first school told Zagoria.

The seven schools whose primary moneymaking sport is men’s basketball—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova—have the necessary votes if they act as a bloc to dissolve the Big East Conference and form their own new league. Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal-Bulletin first reported that potential strategy last month.

A two-thirds majority is required to win such a vote, and only Cincinnati, Connecticut and South Florida retain voting privileges among the league’s FBS-playing schools. By July, however, Central Florida, Houston, SMU and Memphis join, and the option of dissolving the league would pass. So a decision would have to be made relatively quickly.

The problem in such a gambit is that it could provide to be less lucrative—dramatically less lucrative, in fact—than remaining in the Big East.

Even with schools joining that might not be as attractive to the league’s basketball-firsters, there still is considerable equity in the Big East brand and appeal to the league’s contract with Madison Square Garden for the annual championship tournament. There is no guarantee if the Big East were dissolved a similar deal could be negotiated for the new league.

Also, there is the matter of television revenue; new commissioner Mike Aresco has been negotiating with networks to secure a new rights deal. It’s likely the figures the league command are not what they would have been before Louisville left for the ACC and Rutgers left for the Big Ten, but, because of the enhanced market for live sports rights, it’s still expected to be a considerable increase over what the Big East has been receiving. According to Zagoria, the league’s FBS schools have been getting $3.18 million, and the basketball-first schools get $1.56 million.

“It’s crazy, but the numbers get better when you have football,” Zagoria’s source said. “So if they can keep some football, they’re going to try to do it.

“They don’t want to make a mistake by jumping out early and then not being able to get a pretty good TV deal. That’s why it’s a waiting game, because they’re worried about if they did something collectively and tried to reform with others. It all goes around to the brand of the Big East and the Garden.”

There is a strong feeling the “Catholic” basketball league eventually will happen because more conference movement is expected, with UConn and Cincinnati now possible targets for the ACC to replenish its membership if it were to have additional losses—and USF, as well, if one of those to depart were Florida State.

Such programs as Xavier, Dayton and Saint Joseph’s have long been identified as potential targets for such a league, and Butler’s rise has placed it into the speculation.

“I think there is a sense of inevitability to it,” the source said. “And there is a belief that they could form a really great basketball conference.”